Intel and others plan to release a new version of the ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus technology in the first half of 2008, a revamp the chip maker said will make data transfer rates more than 10 times as fast by adding fiber-optic links alongside the traditional copper wires. Intel is working with fellow USB 3.0 Promoters Group members Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, NEC and NXP Semiconductors to release the USB 3.0 specification in the first half of 2008, said Pat Gelsinger, general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group, in a speech here at the Intel Developer Forum.

I agree with the sentiment. Standards like SCSI were bloody annoying because there were different cables for the different revisions (and different connectors, sometimes just to suit an implementor's whims).

But that's not going to stop them from keeping the name. After all, USB is a valuable trademark and they are going to keep it just because the name will give it a leg up in the world.

I also wonder about having an electrical and optical interface in parallel. Surely people aren't that easily confused, and will be able to handle USB for low speed peripherals and a separate optical bus for high speed peripherals until the optical bus takes over. Since the cables will be less complex, it should keep the price of entry lower and maybe even encourage adoption.

I too envisioned something that looks like the old cable, has the same four metal contacts, and adds a highspeed optical link. The thing is, how would an optical signal be passed through? would usb3 hubs have lasers?

I imagine that they would. Low-bandwidth data fiber channels are getting pretty cheap nowadays, What would be impressive would a an all-optical miltiplexed uplink on an 8-port hub. Otherwise, you might get latency and bandwidth issues with recoding the signal.